SALTY DOG – Lost Treasure (Album Review)

Sometimes albums and/or songs just stay with you. For almost 30 years even. That’s the case with a song called “Come Along” from a band called Salty Dog. Ever since I first heard the track, probably on the radio back in those days, it appealed to me. Once acquiring the Every Dog Has Its Day album on cassette, it was hard to switch it out of the car’s tape deck. A one and done kinda deal, there was never anything else from Salty Dog. Hark…what’s this? From Escape Music comes Salty Dog‘s Lost Treasure on March 23, 2018.

Salty Dog formed in the mid-eighties in Los Angeles and issued the album Every Dog Has Its Day in 1990. The band consisted of Jimmi Bleacher (vocals, guitar), Michael Hannon (bass), Khurt Maier (drums), and Pete Reeven (guitar) who took over for founder Scott Lane. With some misunderstandings involving the recording costs of the debut, their video reportedly being held back from MTV airplay by a Geffen exec, and heroin use issues for some members, Salty Dog faded away in the early 90’s.

But before they fell silent they recorded some demos for a planned second release. I’m not sure if these are demos from that era or re-recorded. I suspect the latter as the production is great. There may also be some new compositions here since there seem to be more tracks than research displays of the second album demos. We also find Darrel Beach in place of original vocalist Jimmi Bleacher. The two do sound quite similar though to me and so an excellent fit.

SALTY DOG – Lost Treasure

Lost Treasure vaults into high gear right away with “Damned If I Do”. To me this a total continuation of “Come Along” off Every Dog Has Its Day. The track exudes that same catchiness and bluesy hard guitar riffs that we came to know from the debut. Tracks like the mid-paced “I Need More” simply bang and crash their way through their runtime while “Walk Softly” displays some catchy hooks. Probably my top choice for pick of the litter comes in track four, “Open Sezme”. Some excellent bluesy slide guitar, thundering drum beats, and Beach‘s venomous vocals all come together for a fantastic song.

A great low-end grind can be found in “All That Glitters”, “Woman Scorned” speaks of the same old adage and “Didju” simply pounds. There’s a little bit of a country flavor showing through in “Old Fashioned Love”, but not too much. It’s just a good foot-tapper of a song.

There are a couple of lighter moments to the disc in “Mission On A Hill”, “Honeysuckle Wind” and “When Fools Rush In”. Not being a fan of ballads and/or slower fare particularly, I can honestly say that the finger-pickin’ “Honeysuckle Wind” has infected me. However, “Mission On A Hill”, and the album closer of “When Fools Rush In” leave little impression. Probably just my bias there though.

Overall a fantastic release. I’ve long cherished Every Dog Has Its Day and now Lost Treasure upholds that perfectly. Some real barn-burning rockers collected here that have been getting through gym workouts for a few weeks.

BUY: Amazon.ca / Amazon.com

BUY: Lost Treasure

Cheers,

The Meister

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